Earlier in the season, Solskjaer outlined to Goal.com what made the 71-year-old such an exceptional and successful manager.

"It's inspiring, of course, because he's done it so many times," the Norwegian remarked, "but he comes in first every single day. He has a hunger obviously to help his players, help his staff, and help the club move on.

"There's never a day you feel he sits down and say: 'I can take it easy today'. His work rate and hunger is unbelievable so, to be successful, you've got to be on your toes all the time, you've got to work, you've got to have good ideas.

"Of course his knowledge is unbelievable, I've seen him make a decision in [a split second] and it's very seldom the wrong one."

The former Norway international, who starred at Old Trafford for over a decade, says that playing under Sir Alex has had a huge impact on his own management style.

"Definitely," he added. "He's not a coach per se, he's a manager, how he delegates and manages the staff around. How he talks to the players before, during and after games, how he triggers success.

"Also, how he finds and picks players, what does he look for in players? All things I have learnt from him. I can't copy him - that would be stupid to try and copy the manager because you can't be better than the original anyway - [but] I've taken attributes from him that suit me.

"I've taken attributes from Steve McClaren, Carlos Queiroz, all the different coaches I've had and built it into my philosophy but much of it is influenced by Sir Alex."

Solskjaer also believes that the Scot's understanding of the importance of psychology has made him one of the most successful managers of all time.

He continued: "There have not been many games that we lost twice in a row but I remember we lost to Newcastle, Southampton [and] a Turkish team on the bounce.

"What he said was if we had any b*****ks, sorry, if we had anything about us we would put all our mortgages on us winning the league; we'd never get better odds.

"Of course we didn't - we weren't allowed to bet - but we won the league by a mile that season. That psychology is one of his strengths."